I take part in Documenta 1, the multi-art exhibition in Froots gallery in Shanghai, and I was asked to tell some stories behind my art. Sometimes when I tell my stories people are disappointed, because they have their own stories and connections. So I usually more curious to ask what the visitors feel and think about my works without giving any clear answer. But sometimes I do share my inspirations, and here are some of them:

Demon, sitting.

…He wandered, now long-since outcast;
his desert had no refuge in it:
and one by one the ages passed,
as minute follows after minute,
each one monotonously dull.
The world he ruled was void and null;
the ill he sowed in his existence
brought no delight. His technique scored,
he found no traces of resistance —
yet evil left him deeply bored.«
(M. Y. Lermontov „Demon“)

This is my homage to Russian artist Mikhail Vrubel’s work „The Demon Sitting“. It used to be my favorite painting when I was 13. I am not sure why, but I liked that this strong, handsome and full of power Demon can be sad, quiet and almost crying. Vrubel was a symbolist. Symbolism was an art movement in the beginning of XX century. Symbolists (very briefly) wanted to show some comlicated feelings and emotions. They took archetypal characters that already has meaning for most of the people (like demon, angel, princess, knight etc) and show the feelings on them.


Demon, Sitting

My Demon is a Black Fox. I use this character in other paintings, and this is how I imagine Don Juan. My Black Fox comes to lonely women and seduces them. But he also has his moments of loneliness and sadness…


more about symbolism, Vrubel, and his Demon

more about my inspiration for Magic Forest

The place I spent my teenage years was far from being aesthetic paradise. Actually, it was (and stays) a real slams. Municipality has some plans to take it all down and build a regular middle-class neighborhood. But right now, just as 20 years ago, these houses are still here. They are so ugly, that has even some kind of old charm.







Back then, this dispiriting landscape around wasn’t bothering me. I was concentrated on myself my friends and our relationship, fantasy books (reading Hobbit and Lord of the Rings again and again), and drawing comics with little creatures, which my mum still keep in a box on top of her cupboard. Not the creatures, of course, the comics.

Now I like to believe I see the real things as they are. I have to see it, because now I am a responsible grown up. We all have to. But sometimes, especially when I am walking around with my kids I enjoy to look through my personal kaleidoscope. Then I can turn this:



into this:



see more transformations

One day I was cutting tomatos and suddenly had an idea for the new painting. «I’ll use pencils, acrylic and watercolors together,» — was I thinking while sketching.



I noticed that the pose and face of one of the women on my sketch reminds Ingre’s La Grande Odalisque (not the albino monkey, but the pencil face on the left)


La Grande Odalisque, Ingres, 1814

Did you notice that her hand is too long, and the left leg is in impossible pose? Well I did, but only after reading about it in wikipedia.

So, this is my Grande Odalisque, but in her normal life, while she is cutting tomatoes after swimming with friends in the river.



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Last weeks I was working on my new painting «Olympia’s weekend».


It is homage to Manet’s «Olympia» famous painting, but also to amazing moving sculpture by Paul Spooner. I saw it a few years ago in automata’s exhibition, and was absolutely charmed. The black lady became an egyptian god Anubis, and you can see how annoyed Olympia is breathing heavily, but shows no attention to him.


Olympia by Paul Spooner.

This is the oryginal Olympia by Manet, (c. 1863):


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My kids sometimes create really cool illustrations. Ok, every parent is sure that his kids are genius, but for my opinion this funny bird is great, so we printed a t-shirt with it.



more photos

My masterclass at «Family Paint» had great success! Kids and parents made many funny monsters!



cool monsters made in my workshop

Last week I had a birthday, and as a present got from my mum a room in a little hotel near Jerusalem. In the morning we planned to go swimming in the hotel’s pool, but then I discovered that I forgot the swimming suits, so we decided to go to the Art Museum instead. Every time I visit there, I hurry up to regional crafts parts. It is full of inspiration, design ideas, strange creatures, old legends — everything I love so much.



little treasures of Jerusalem Museum

знаешь, если искать врага — обретаешь его в любом.
вот, пожалуй, спроси меня — мне никто не страшен:
я спокоен и прям и знаю, что впереди.
я хожу без страховки с факелом надо лбом
по стальной струне, натянутой между башен,
когда снизу кричат только: «упади».

разве они знают, чего мне стоило ремесло.
разве они видели, сколько раз я орал и плакал.
разве ступят на ветер, нащупав его изгиб.
они думают, я дурак, которому повезло.
если я отвечу им, я не удержу над бровями факел.
если я отвечу им, я погиб.

by vero4ka

Joana Vasconcelos is mazing french artist, based in Lisbon.

My daughter Michelle now is reading Erich Kastner’s book «Lottie and Lisa», about twin girls who were separated at birth and met by chance at summer camp. Today we made a very fun photosession, to make Michelle look like twins.





more photos of «double Michelle»

The girls and me love to listen in the car to Prokofiev’s «Peter and the Wolf». We found this great version, with some narration which explains how musical instruments are connected to the personages of the story. As this is one of my favorite subjects (children and scary animals) I googled it a bit and found this great blog with a collection of vintage covers of vinyl records, all for «Peter and the Wolf» only.

my two favorites:



a few more covers

What a strange vintage photo I found today on the internet:

Surfing through blogs, I bumped into new collection of Red Valentino. I love it so much: the fabrics, the clothes, the styling, the photography and the face expressions of the model — she has that look which I always try to catch in my works.



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